I thought I'd start a new thread for updates on my cancer treatments and whatever else is going on, since the bad news thread title is misleading now.
My last treatment went better than the previous two and my chest wound is still closed up, which is a good thing. My arm is getting slightly stronger and I hope to resume lifting dumbbells next week. I need to build up my strength again, because I am going back to Denmark in May and I am extremely pumped about that! I'd like to be able to schlepp my own checked bag and not have someone else lifting it for me.
It's going to be a fabulous trip, 6 weeks and a couple of days for me. My brother is going along as well as my friends Chipp and Rod. Chipp is staying close to 3 weeks and has not gone with me over there since 2006 so he is also very pumped to be going. It will be Rod's first trip and he will be there for 2 weeks. I will get to be a tour guide. Also, I am throwing a party in my favorite pub of all, the wonderful, ever-magnificent Irish House in Aalborg on May 7th. The owner and I are friends and he will give me a little discount. We'll have Irish stew and brews in the cellar and I hope to have around 25 family and friends there. I might bill it as the "Fu** Cancer Party." A few months back, I was not sure I'd ever be able to go over to Denmark again or if I'd even be alive, but the cancer hasn't gotten me yet. I'm doing a number on it, instead.
Some other cool things I plan to do when I am back in my ancestral lands include a wine tasting in a castle, touring another castle and the northernmost manor home in the country, and visiting Skagen, the top of Denmark, where you can stand on a little patch of beach and have one foot in one sea and one in another. They also have a brewpub up there I am wanting to check out. I will start and end my trip in Aalborg and spend 5 weeks in an apartment I rent that is very close to the beach. I can hardly wait for May 4th to roll around! [Reply]
I am at the center, 3 pm approaching and have yet to get my chemo, but it won't take as long as usual since I am not getting part of it today. A rash, which is expected, broke out all over my torso, especially my chest, so the doc wants to give me a break from it until January. I will be on some steroids and anti-biotics for a while, though. I can't have any alcohol on the prednisone, but aside from a stout or something special on NYE, I won't have any. I can skip the wine on Christmas Eve. Anyhow, it was my last meeting with Doc Baranda as she is moving away to San Diego. I gave her a thank you card that I wrote quite a bit inside of the card. I told her that the first time I saw her, she had me crying with the grim prognosis and I felt it was right that my card makes her cry the last time I will see her. She said she was sorry to make me cry, but I told her that I knew she had to tell me how serious my condition was and that I knew it had to be hard on her to deliver such news. I did ask her if she still felt like I had 3 years to live if I was lucky, since we're 16 months into thtis thing now. She said she thinks I will go longer than that, but didn't give me a number. That's okay, though. I think I am going to pass that 3 year mark, too, but how much remains to be seen. She said I am responding remarkably to treatments and my liver tumors are very sensitive to the chemo, where the big fear for patients is that their tumors become resistant. My cancer tumors, however, are wimpy in that regard. Fine by me; die you little bitches, die. [Reply]
It's got to be hard (at least at first) being a doctor who has to give this kind of news to people on a regular basis. I'd imagine it gets easier though. You're bound to get desensitized to some degree.
She did ask me to send postcards from Denmark and Scotland next year, but never told me where to send them! I guess I will email her office about that. [Reply]
Ok, NOW I am ready for some football! The chemo tore me up last night from 1 am to about 7 am. I got little sleep in that time, gassy as a damned rhino and having to power dump about 8 times. I honestly have no idea where it all came from, since I have not eaten a whole pig on my own and I have not been backed up. I am a lot lighter this morning, though, and I am hungry now, too, so that is good. Shower time, late breakfast, and then kickoff... I got my plan laid out now. [Reply]
I even got a nap in after the game, almost 3 hours, so my day improved quite a bit. I woke up and discovered that the Raiders, Bills, and Donks lost and I felt much happier. [Reply]
I am pumped up today because I did a search for airfares and found one that fits my needs and is a great price, too. I hate paying over 1200 dollars roundtrip going to Aalborg, Denmark, from Kansas City, so anything less is a win for me. What I want to do differently this year is visit a cousin in Copenhagen at the end of my trip for 5 days, but in the past, multiple destination flight plans have been very expensive, adding somewhere around 400 to 500 dollars more compared to just a straight round trip fare. I never understood why. Who cares if I fly to Copenhagen a few days before I leave for another destination on my itinerary?
So, I searched for the flights KC to Aalborg on April 25, Aalborg to Copenhagen on June 17, and Copenhagen to KC on June 22 and it came up 1199 dollars! I am going to jump on that very soon. I compared the straight roundtrip KC to AAL with no delays between flights other than waiting at the gates and it was 1153 dollars. I am happy.
I am also planning a side trip to Edinburgh, Scotland in mid-May and the fares I have been seeing are great, 250 dollars or less for the round trip. It's a short journey, too, going to Copenhagen, 50 minute wait, then on to Edinburgh, total travel time 2 hours 25 minutes.
My new doc might freak that I am leaving for 2 months, but he will just have to deal with it. I need to live, dammit! The routine of cancer treatment after cancer treatment wears my spirit down and a trip like this recharges me to face the drudgery, pains, and irritations of treatment, so I look at it as a part of my healing process to go away for a while and just live as normally as I can. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I am pumped up today because I did a search for airfares and found one that fits my needs and is a great price, too. I hate paying over 1200 dollars roundtrip going to Aalborg, Denmark, from Kansas City, so anything less is a win for me. What I want to do differently this year is visit a cousin in Copenhagen at the end of my trip for 5 days, but in the past, multiple destination flight plans have been very expensive, adding somewhere around 400 to 500 dollars more compared to just a straight round trip fare. I never understood why. Who cares if I fly to Copenhagen a few days before I leave for another destination on my itinerary?
So, I searched for the flights KC to Aalborg on April 25, Aalborg to Copenhagen on June 17, and Copenhagen to KC on June 22 and it came up 1199 dollars! I am going to jump on that very soon. I compared the straight roundtrip KC to AAL with no delays between flights other than waiting at the gates and it was 1153 dollars. I am happy.
I am also planning a side trip to Edinburgh, Scotland in mid-May and the fares I have been seeing are great, 250 dollars or less for the round trip. It's a short journey, too, going to Copenhagen, 50 minute wait, then on to Edinburgh, total travel time 2 hours 25 minutes.
My new doc might freak that I am leaving for 2 months, but he will just have to deal with it. I need to live, dammit! The routine of cancer treatment after cancer treatment wears my spirit down and a trip like this recharges me to face the drudgery, pains, and irritations of treatment, so I look at it as a part of my healing process to go away for a while and just live as normally as I can.
Totally agree, Ed. The spirit must be willing to beat this stuff, so keeping your spirit willing is a MUST. Sounds like a wonderful trip!!! [Reply]
I booked my flights and my hotel this morning. I am very pleased! I got the good fare and flights, although I have to go through Newark, New Joisey. With my Expedia points, I was able to book a better room in the hotel I always stay at in Aalborg, called the Prinsens Hotel. I usually get the single economy room, and request number 444. It's tiny with a very small bed, and I often bonk my head on the wall or an elbow when turning over, and the bathroom is so small I can literally sit on the toilet, put my arm in the sink and touch the back of the shower wall with my toes. But, it suits my needs and I can find enough room in there for my stuff. This time, it was the same price with my points to get a room with a twin bed, so I will be much more comfortable sleeping in that room, if it is not on the side of the hotel facing the train station! That is one huge advantage of my room 444; all I have to listen to are seagulls and the random drunk returning from a pub in the wee hours of the night, but that is just the weekend nights, unless there is a holiday. Last time, I wished I had my .20 gauge to deal with the seagulls, the noisy bastards, but it is better than hearing train brakes squeal. I might bring earplugs this trip.
Another good thing about the Prinsen is the breakfast buffet. I get my money's worth out of that. I generally have two boiled eggs, a bowl of corn flakes with milk, a cup of yogurt, fresh fruit, a large roll split in half and stuffed with cheese and I can choose two types of sliced ham and two types of salami, and juice. I go back for seconds on some of the items, too; I'm not shy about that!
Now I just have to secure my beach apartment for 6 weeks, and I get a great discount on that since Charlotte, the landlady, likes me. I will book my Scottish side trip soon once I figure out if anyone is going with me or not. If I go solo, I will still have a great time, but I hope my brother can go and my cousin and her husband who live in Aalborg. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I booked my flights and my hotel this morning. I am very pleased! I got the good fare and flights, although I have to go through Newark, New Joisey. With my Expedia points, I was able to book a better room in the hotel I always stay at in Aalborg, called the Prinsens Hotel. I usually get the single economy room, and request number 444. It's tiny with a very small bed, and I often bonk my head on the wall or an elbow when turning over, and the bathroom is so small I can literally sit on the toilet, put my arm in the sink and touch the back of the shower wall with my toes. But, it suits my needs and I can find enough room in there for my stuff. This time, it was the same price with my points to get a room with a twin bed, so I will be much more comfortable sleeping in that room, if it is not on the side of the hotel facing the train station! That is one huge advantage of my room 444; all I have to listen to are seagulls and the random drunk returning from a pub in the wee hours of the night, but that is just the weekend nights, unless there is a holiday. Last time, I wished I had my .20 gauge to deal with the seagulls, the noisy bastards, but it is better than hearing train brakes squeal. I might bring earplugs this trip.
Another good thing about the Prinsen is the breakfast buffet. I get my money's worth out of that. I generally have two boiled eggs, a bowl of corn flakes with milk, a cup of yogurt, fresh fruit, a large roll split in half and stuffed with cheese and I can choose two types of sliced ham and two types of salami, and juice. I go back for seconds on some of the items, too; I'm not shy about that!
Now I just have to secure my beach apartment for 6 weeks, and I get a great discount on that since Charlotte, the landlady, likes me. I will book my Scottish side trip soon once I figure out if anyone is going with me or not. If I go solo, I will still have a great time, but I hope my brother can go and my cousin and her husband who live in Aalborg.
Wow, I know you'll have a good time Ed! I'm taking a year off from a beach vacation this year for the first time in 10 years. I'm saving my time off for summer activities this go around.
I'm thinking about heading to Alaska to slay some kings and halibut and along with more ATV/shooting trips this summer. You are in my thoughts and prayers as always buddy. I hope you have a Merry Christmas. [Reply]
Thanks and that Alaska trip sounds great, too! Have a very Merry Christmas and unlike here, I am sure you will have snow. We're supposed to have low 50s for the rest of the week. *groan* [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
Thanks and that Alaska trip sounds great, too! Have a very Merry Christmas and unlike here, I am sure you will have snow. We're supposed to have low 50s for the rest of the week. *groan*
God bless you Ed! Even though you nor I post often, you have been a favorite of mine here over the years! Have a Merry and blessed Christmas! [Reply]
Dude in Daytona we are still in the high 70's. Just walked to the store near my house and When I came back looked like I had just ran a few miles lol. Have a good time Ed keeps us updated [Reply]